Legislation & Regulation
Legislative and Regulatory Update
January 2020 by Scott Harn
• PLF files petition with US Supreme Court on behalf of Oregon miners
As we reported last month, the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) agreed to assist mining attorney James Buchal and miners in Oregon with a petition to the US Supreme Court regarding the “no addition” argument for suction dredging.
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality claimed suction gold dredgers are required to obtain a Section 402 EPA permit as a polluter, but the Clean Water Act clearly states there must be the addition of a pollutant to trigger the need for such a permit.
In Eastern Oregon Mining Association v. Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, the Oregon Supreme court (in a 6-1 decision) ruled that the mere movement of material already within a navigable waterway was deemed to be an addition. The US Supreme Court petition from PLF seeks to fix this error. It has now been completed and submitted to the US Supreme Court for consideration.
A few select quotes from the US Supreme Court petition:
...For today’s suction dredge miners the principal threat comes from heavy-handed government.
...The Court should resolve the conflict between...courts...that have adopted the “mere movement” rule...holding that the mere movement of pre-existing pollutants within a regulated water does not trigger the Clean Water Act’s permitting requirement.”
...This Court should reinforce the textual boundaries of the Clean Water Act to arrest the Act’s continued deformation into an overbearing federal land-use statute.
The arguments are well-written, clear and concise, and backed by significant case precedence. This seems to be the strongest US Supreme Court petition we’ve seen to date to get the clarification necessary and get suction gold dredgers back to work.
• Land and Water Conservation Fund abuse by Forest Service
A review by the Government Accountability Office found the US Forest Service ignored federal restrictions to acquire many thousands of acres of new federal lands.
The federal Land and Water Conservation fund includes provisions that limit the amount of land the Forest Service can acquire in Western States to “not more than 15 percent” of purchases. However, the GAO report found the Forest Service added 124,000 acres—with 76% of those lands out
west—from 2014 through 2018.
Though Senator Lisa Murkowski, chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, called for greater oversight to avoid this problem in the future, she failed to call upon the agency to dispose of lands that were above the legal threshold.
• Army asks for REE proposals
The US Army announced plans to fund the construction of rare earth processing facilities. It’s the first time taxpayer funds will be used for the production of rare earths since the Manhattan Project, which was undertaken to create the first atomic bomb during WWII.
The stated goal is to reduce the reliance on China for rare earth minerals essential for advanced weapons and technology.
The Army announcement asked for proposals for a pilot plant and agreed to cover up to two-thirds of the cost of a new processing facility.
Legislative Update
118th Congress 1st session
Legislative and Regulatory Update
• Idaho challenges EPA regulations
• California suction gold dredging
US Rare Earths: We Have & We Have Not
America’s premier source of strategic REEs were regulated out of business and 300 employees lost their jobs. For almost fifteen years America has been dependent on the communist Chinese cartel.
Legislative and Regulatory Update
• Salazar pushes wilderness
• California Governor signs AB 120
Comments Needed On Pebble Project Draft EIS
If you do not have the time to read the entire document, I would suggest starting with the Executive Summary that begins on page 80.
MMAC & PLP Update
On July 4, we are reminded of the sacrifices our Founding Fathers made to establish this great country of ours, and in that spirit, the Minerals and Mining Advisory Council (MMAC) has created a draft Declaration of Miners.And MMAC has been hard at work writing a bill, with the unwavering support of several members of Congress, to reaffirm the rights of miners operating in traditional mining districts.
Feds Challenge North Idaho Mining Claims
Fishing, camping and the protection of American Indian artifacts along a 30-mile section of the North Fork of the Clearwater River outweigh the desire of placer miners to search for gold, an attorney representing the US Forest Service said.
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